expected, to fall back to it for protection. It had been their hope that
it would prove an impassable barrier to the Allied troops, but now it
had been broken, and the moral effect of the British success was even
greater than the material.

One of the most noticeable results of the British advance had been the
capture of Lens. It had been captured without a fight, because of the
British threat upon its rear, but its capture was of tremendous
importance. Lens had been the scene of bitter fighting in the latter
part of August, 1917, when the Canadians had specially distinguished
themselves. This city had been heavily fortified by the Germans who had
recognized its importance as being the center of the great Lens coal
fields, and they had never given it up. It had sometimes been described
as the strongest single position that had ever confronted the Allies on
the western front. It had been made a sort of citadel of reinforced
concrete. Even the courage and power of the Canadians had only given
them possession of some of its suburbs. Between these suburbs and the
concrete citadel were the coal pits, with their fathomless depths of
ages and the mysteries of kultural strategy. The struggle became a
succession of avalanches of gas, burning oil, rifle and machine-gun
fire. Both sides lost terrifically, but the Germans had held the town.
Now it was given up without a blow and its great coal fields were once
more in possession of the French. Before retreating the Germans showed
their usual destructive energy and the mines were found flooded as a
result of consistent and scientific use of dynamite.

The recapture of Lens was cheering news in Paris. Not the least of the
many sufferings of the French during the last two years of the war was
that which came from the scarcity of coal. Indeed, more than once during
those two winters coal could not be obtained at any price. These periods
unfortunately came in the latter part of the winter, and it happened
they were unusual periods of intense cold. Thousands of people stayed in
bed all day in order to keep warm. The capture of Lens, therefore, had
been anxiously desired. Nearly the whole of the French coal supply had
come from Lens and the adjacent Bethune coal fields. The Bethune field,
although steadily working, had never produced enough coal for even the
pressing necessities of the French munition works.

The news that Bapaume had fallen on August 29th brought back, especially
to t